France’s Constitutional Council upholds raising of legal retirement age to 64
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Transcript
00:00 France 24's Olivia Bizeau is there, the decision dropping moments ago.
00:05 Hi François, yes that's right. I'm here in front of the Conseil Constitutionnel
00:13 with lots of journalists as the news has just broken.
00:17 The eight, nine members of the Conseil Constitutionnel
00:22 have accepted the most controversial part of President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plan
00:29 and that's to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
00:34 Now as expected the Conseil hasn't accepted the whole bill,
00:38 they have cherry-picked certain aspects of it,
00:41 but the most unpopular part, the retirement age is set to be signed into law.
00:47 Now lots of people are going to be very angry about that,
00:51 they've been protesting against this change happening since January.
00:55 And as you can see behind me there is a strong police presence in front of the Conseil Constitutionnel.
01:02 You can't see many police officers here but there are lots in the area.
01:06 Protests have been forbidden in this particular area of Paris,
01:10 even though other protests as you mentioned are taking place in other parts of the capital.
01:15 Now as you can see there are anti-riot barricades in front of the building.
01:19 Earlier we saw police officers on the roof, there are lots of police vehicles,
01:24 roads have been blocked.
01:25 Now this is highly unusual for the Conseil Constitutionnel,
01:29 usually they're a symbol of peace in France
01:32 and its nine members are known as les sages, the wise ones.
01:37 And they're usually not the centre of the political stage,
01:42 they usually operate sort of behind the scenes
01:45 and their role is in theory supposed to be just a legal one.
01:48 So they're not expected to this sort of media frenzy and security presence in front.
01:55 Olivier, images outside of Paris' city hall,
02:00 which is some 20 blocks away from where you are right now.
02:04 And there they are rallying as they are in 130 places at least across the country.
02:11 This Friday is not over yet.
02:16 No, the fight is definitely not over.
02:19 This is not the end of the pension reform saga.
02:23 Protests are expected as you said in 130 locations,
02:26 protests are taking place in Paris.
02:28 As we speak the unions are discussing,
02:30 they're going to publish a communique shortly about what the next course of action will be.
02:37 They're going to be meeting with President Macron on Tuesday as well.
02:41 So definitely this is not the end of the fight.
02:45 Unions are expected to push for people, for the protests to continue.
02:51 So yes, it's not the end.